Thomas Cook History Thomas Cook History Thomas Cook History Thomas Cook is the world’s best-known name in travel, thanks to the inspiration and dedication of a single man. Thomas Cook began his international travel company in 1841, with a successful one-day rail excursion at a shilling a head from Leicester to Loughborough on 5 July. From these humble beginnings Thomas Cook launched a whole new kind of company – devoted to helping Britons see the world. View key dates of Thomas Cook history A Brief History On 9 June 1841 a 32-year old cabinet-maker named Thomas Cook walked from his home in Market Harborough to the nearby town of Leicester to attend a temperance meeting. A former Baptist preacher, Thomas Cook was a religious man who believed that most Victorian social problems were related to alcohol and that the lives of working people would be greatly improved if they drank less and became better educated. As he walked along the road to Leicester, he later recalled, 'the thought suddenly flashed across my mind as to the practicability of employing the great powers of railways and locomotion for the furtherance of this social reform'.

At the meeting, Thomas suggested that a special train be engaged to carry the temperance supporters of Leicester to a meeting in Loughborough about four weeks later. The proposal was received with such enthusiasm that, on the following day, Thomas submitted his idea to the secretary of the Midland Railway Company. A train was subsequently arranged, and on 5 July 1841 about 500 passengers were conveyed in open carriages the enormous distance of 12 miles and back for a shilling. The day was a great success and, as Thomas later recorded, 'thus was struck the keynote of my excursions, and the social idea grew upon me'. Early Tours During the next three summers Thomas arranged a succession of trips between Leicester, Nottingham, Derby and Birmingham on behalf of local temperance societies and Sunday schools. Within these limits many thousands of people experienced rail travel for the first time, and Thomas was able to lay the foundations of his future business. He later described this period as one of 'enthusiastic philanthropy' since, beyond the printing of posters and handbills, he had no financial interest in any of these early excursions.

Thomas Cook's first commercial venture took place in the summer of 1845, when he organised a trip to Liverpool. This was a far more ambitious project than anything he had previously attempted, and he made his preparations with great thoroughness. Not content with simply providing tickets at low prices - 15 shillings for first-class passengers and 10 shillings for second. Thomas also investigated the route and published a handbook of the journey. This 60-page booklet was a forerunner of the modern holiday brochure. The Great Exhibition By the end of 1850, having already visited Wales, Scotland and Ireland, Thomas Cook began to contemplate foreign trips to Europe, the United States and the Holy Land. Such thoughts had to be postponed, however, when Sir Joseph Paxton, architect of the Crystal Palace, persuaded Thomas to devote himself to bringing workers from Yorkshire and the Midlands to London for the Great Exhibition of 1851. This he did with great enthusiasm, rarely spending a night at home between June and October, and he even produced a newspaper, Cook's Exhibition Herald and Excursion Advertiser, in order to promote his tours.

By the end of the season Thomas had taken 150,000 people to London, his final trains to the Exhibition carrying 3,000 children from Leicester, Nottingham and Derby. Across the Channel Thomas continued to expand his business in Britain, but he was determined to develop it in Europe too. In 1855 an International Exhibition was held in Paris for the first time and Thomas seized this opportunity by trying to persuade the companies commanding the Channel traffic to allow him concessions. They refused to work with him, however, and the only route he was able to use was the one between Harwich and Antwerp. This opened up the way for a grand circular tour to include Brussels, Cologne, the Rhine, Heidelberg, Baden-Baden, Strasbourg and Paris, returning to London via Le Havre or Dieppe. By this route, during the summer of 1855, Thomas escorted his first tourists to Europe. Switzerland and Italy Thomas visited Switzerland for the first time in June 1863. Although this initial tour was little more than an information-gathering trip, a party of more than 60 ladies and gentlemen accompanied Thomas as far as Geneva.

Among these pioneering tourists was a young woman called Jemima Morrell, who maintained a written account of each day's events. Her original diaries may be studied today in the Thomas Cook Archives. Thomas organised further trips to the Continent in 1863, and by the end of the season he had taken nearly 2000 tourists to Paris, some 500 of whom had continued to Switzerland. With the co-operation of the Paris, Lyons and Mediterranean Railway, Thomas began to issue circular tickets (in both English and French) between Paris and the Alps. He then established the first circular tours of Switzerland, which were such an immediate success that he decided to extend his arrangements across the Alps. The first Italian tours took place in the summer of 1864, when Thomas escorted two large groups, one to Florence and parts of central Italy, the other to Rome and Naples. Hotel Coupons and Circular Notes Thomas's travellers to Switzerland and Italy were from the growing middle classes and they expected better accommodation than his earlier working-class customers had. He therefore set out to negotiate with innkeepers and hotel proprietors to provide rooms and meals at good prices.

His friendship with hoteliers, who were pleased to get his business, enabled Thomas to develop two important travel systems: one was the hotel coupon, launched in 1868, which travellers could use to pay for hotel accommodation and meals instead of using money; the other was his circular note, first issued in 1874 and a forerunner of the travellers cheque, which enabled tourists to obtain local currency in exchange for a paper note issued by Thomas Cook. Beyond Europe Building on his successes in Europe, Thomas made an exploratory trip to North America in 1865 and set up a system of tours covering 4,000 miles of railways. Four years later, in 1869, he hired two steamers and conducted his first party up the Nile. The climax of his career, however, came in September 1872 when, at the age of 63, he departed from Leicester on a tour of the world that would keep him away from home for almost eight months.

It had long been his ambition to travel 'to Egypt via China', but such a trip only became practicable at the end of 1869 following the opening of the Suez Canal and the completion of a rail network linking the east and west coasts of America. Thomas and his small party crossed the Atlantic by steamship and made their way through the United States from New York to San Francisco by rail. They travelled by Pacific steamer to Japan, then across the Inland Sea to China, and afterwards visited Singapore, Ceylon and India. Leaving Bombay, they crossed the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea to Cairo, from where most of the party travelled back to London. Thomas himself, however, set off on an extended tour of Egypt and Palestine, finally returning home via Turkey, Greece, Italy and France after an absence of 222 days. The conducted world tour quickly became an annual event, but many additional tickets were issued to independent travellers, some of whom went via Australia and New Zealand rather than China and Japan. John Mason Cook While Thomas was travelling round the world, his son, John Mason Cook, successfully completed the firm's move to a new head office at Ludgate Circus.

However, father and son argued over certain aspects of the project and in 1878 their partnership ended. John was a better businessman than Thomas, and he set about expanding the company internationally. In an age when telegraphy was in its infancy and there were no telephones or fax machines, this was far from easy. John created overseas editions of The Excursionist, the newspaper started by his father in 1851, to inform customers in places such as France, Germany, India, Australasia, America and the Far East about the services he offered. (This newspaper, which became known as The Traveller's Gazette in May 1902, continued to be published until 1939.) He also kept up a continuous stream of correspondence with his offices abroad, checking on their work and complaining if anything went wrong. Like many successful businessmen, John Mason Cook combined a flair for grasping business opportunities with a remarkable memory for small details. The Gordon Relief Expedition In 1884 John Mason Cook was asked by the British Government to organise a relief expedition up the Nile to rescue General Gordon from Khartoum.

Arrangements were made for the movement of 18,000 troops, nearly 40,000 tons of supplies, 40,000 tons of coal and 800 whaleboats. To transport the coal from Tyneside to Boulac and Assiout via Alexandria, 28 large steamers and 6000 railway trucks were required. An additional 7000 railway trucks were needed for the military stores, while on the Nile 27 steamers and 650 sailing boats were used to carry the troops and supplies. John and his Egyptian managers acted as overseers of the entire operation, which relied on the labour of 5000 local men and boys, and completed their side of the contract in November 1884. Despite all the efforts, however, Khartoum fell in January 1885 and Gordon was killed. Frank, Ernest and Bert Thomas and John Mason Cook both died during the 1890s and the business was inherited by John's three sons: Frank Henry, Ernest Edward and Thomas Albert ('Bert').

During the first quarter of the twentieth century - a period which saw the introduction of winter sports holidays, tours by motor car and commercial air travel - the firm of Thos Cook and Son dominated the world travel scene. The company was incorporated as Thos Cook & Son Ltd in 1924, and in 1926 the headquarters moved from Ludgate Circus to Berkeley Street, Mayfair, a once aristocratic area which was now the centre of London society. Then, in 1928, the surviving grandsons, Frank and Ernest (Bert having died in 1914), unexpectedly sold the business to the Belgian Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits et des Grands Express Européens, operators of most of Europe's luxury sleeping cars, including the Orient Express. From Wagons-Lits to British Railways Shortly after the outbreak of World War II, the Wagons-Lits headquarters in Paris was seized by occupying forces, and Cook's British assets were requisitioned by the British Government. To save the company from complete financial collapse in its centenary year, a deal was brokered and, fittingly, the organisation was sold to Britain's four mainline railway companies.

Thos Cook & Son Ltd settled its affairs with Wagons-Lits (which retained a 25% share in Cook's overseas) immediately after the war, and in 1948 the firm became state-owned as part of the nationalised British Railways. The Fifties and Sixties Thomas Cook & Son Ltd benefited from the post-war holiday boom, which saw one million Britons travelling abroad by 1950. The company set up a Business Travel Service and refurbished its holiday camp at Prestatyn (which had opened shortly before the outbreak of war). Although Cook's remained the largest and most successful company in the industry, its pre-eminence was now being challenged by new travel firms that were able to undercut Cook's prices and offer cheap package deals. In 1965 the company's net profits exceeded £1 million for the first time, but in an increasingly cut-throat marketplace Thomas Cook began to fall behind its younger rivals De-nationalisation and Beyond In 1972 Thomas Cook returned to private ownership, bought by a consortium of Midland Bank, Trust House Forte and the Automobile Association.

Radical reorganisation followed and a new, standardised corporate logo (the words ‘Thomas Cook’ in ‘flame’ red) was soon introduced. Thomas Cook managed to survive the recession of the 1970s – a recession that witnessed the collapse of several travel firms – and enhanced its reputation for providing excellent service by launching a Money Back Guarantee scheme in 1974. Thomas Cook experienced many changes during the 1970s, including the sale of its holiday camp at Prestatyn and the relocation of its administrative headquarters from London to Peterborough. The firm also became a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Midland Bank Group. During the 1980s Thomas Cook began to concentrate on its long-haul tours programme, purchasing Rankin Kuhn Travel in 1982 and quitting the short-haul package tours market in 1988 (a market to which Thomas Cook successfully returned in 1996 when it acquired Sunworld). Between 1985 and 1990, Thomas Cook also expanded its network of high street shops through the acquisition of the retail chains Frames, Blue Sky and Four Corners.

The company's continued success was assured in 1992 when it was purchased from Midland Bank by Westdeutsche Landesbank (WestLB), Germany’s third largest bank, and LTU Group, Germany’s leading charter airline. Thomas Cook became a wholly-owned subsidiary of WestLB in 1995. A period of expansion followed – which saw the acquisition of Sunworld, Time Off and Flying Colours in quick succession – culminating in Thomas Cook's merger with Carlson Leisure Group's UK travel interests and the subsequent formation of JMC (including JMC Airlines) in 1999. Into the 21st Century In March 2001, following the sale of its Global and Financial Services division to Travelex, Thomas Cook was acquired by C&N Touristic AG, one of Germany’s largest travel groups. Within a matter of months, C&N Touristic AG had changed its name to Thomas Cook AG and launched a new logo and brand identity. On 19 June 2007, Thomas Cook AG and MyTravel Group plc merged to form Thomas Cook Group plc.

Another merger followed in October 2011, when Thomas Cook amalgamated its UK high street travel and foreign exchange businesses with those of the Co-operative Group and the Midlands Co-operative Society to create the UK’s largest retail travel network of over 1200 shops. On 1 October 2013 Thomas Cook officially unveiled its new unified brand to the world. The ‘Sunny Heart’ and ‘Let’s go!’ tagline will form an important part of Thomas Cook’s future plans. Thomas Cook Today Today, Thomas Cook Group plc is one of the world’s leading leisure travel groups, with sales of over £9 billion and more than 20 million customers. The group is supported by c.27,000 employees and operates from 17 countries. It is number one or two in all its core markets. Thomas Cook’s vision is to deliver trusted, personalised holiday experiences through our high-tech, high-touch strategy. We will be there for our customers wherever, whenever and however they want to connect with us. Thomas Cook’s timeless spirit of innovation started in 1841 and it is this that makes us stand out from the crowd.

It is reflected in our new, trusted products and growing suite of online tools and applications (such as “RepAdvisor” and “DreamCapture”). Innovation shaped our past and it will continue to shape our future. Further Reading W.

Fraser Rae, The Business of Travel - A Fifty Years' Record of Progress (Thos Cook & Son, 1891) John Pudney, The Thomas Cook Story (Michael Joseph, 1953) Edmund Swinglehurst, The Romantic Journey - The story of Thomas Cook and Victorian Travel (Pica Editions, 1974) Edmund Swinglehurst, Cook's Tours - The Story of Popular Travel (Blandford Press, 1982) Piers Brendon, Thomas Cook - 150 Years of Popular Tourism (Secker & Warburg, 1991) Robert Ingle, Thomas Cook of Leicester (Headstart History, 1991) Derek Seaton, The Local Legacy of Thomas Cook (self-published, 1996) Lynne Withey, Grand Tours and Cook's Tours - A History of Leisure Travel, 1750 to 1915 (Aurum Press, 1998) Andrew Williamson, The Golden Age of Travel - The Romantic Years of Tourism in Images from the Thomas Cook Archives (Thomas Cook Publishing, 1998) Paul Smith, The History of Tourism - Thomas Cook and

 the Origins of Leisure Travel [boxed set of four volumes] (Routledge/ Thoemmes Press, 1998) Jill Hamilton, Thomas Cook - The Holiday Maker (Sutton, 2005) Company Archives Thomas Cook possesses a unique collection of archive material covering all aspects of the company's history from the founder's first excursion on 5 July 1841 to the present.

This material is held in the Company Archives, which functions as a corporate 'memory', offering an information service to Thomas Cook's various departments and to interested members of the public, as well as providing research facilities for academics, journalists and picture researchers from all over the world. Thomas Cook Group – History Home › History Thomas Cook is the world’s best-known name in travel, thanks to the inspiration and dedication of a single man. Thomas Cook began his international travel company in 1841, with a successful one-day rail excursion at a shilling a head from Leicester to Loughborough on 5 July. From these humble beginnings Thomas Cook launched a whole new kind of company – devoted to helping Britons see the world. Today, Thomas Cook Group plc is one of the world’s leading leisure travel groups, with sales of over £8.5 billion and more than 22 million customers. The group is supported by c.22,000 employees and operates from 15 countries. It is number one or two in all its core markets. Thomas Cook’s vision is to deliver trusted, personalised holiday experiences through our high-tech, high-touch strategy. We will be there for our customers wherever, whenever and however they want to connect with us.

2013 A short history of... the package holiday - Covered mag, presented by Gocompare.com A short history of... the package holiday The quintissential package holiday "The package holiday as we would know it today was properly born in the 1950s, and the boom began in the 60s" 2 Jan, 2014 Tweet It’s alarmingly easy to book a holiday. Maybe too easy, considering the recent case of a teenager getting drunk and accidentally ending up in France. These days, you can compare holiday prices online and book it all it in one go; flights , hotels , excursions, the lot. Package holidays in particular take the effort out of booking, and they can often be a great way to keep the price under control, too. But when did package holidays really get going in the UK? Who actually invented them? What is a package holiday? Before we start, let’s synchronise watches and make sure we’re all talking about the same thing. For the purposes of this article, we have taken package holiday to mean a charter flight and one or two weeks’ accommodation, which is sometimes all-inclusive.

However, Professor Graham Miller, head of tourism at the University of Surrey, points out that “a package is simply a bundling of services that people want”. So, while two weeks in Spain might be what we traditionally think of, it could just as easily be two weeks trekking across Poland if you’ve bought the experience as a package. Ye olde package holidaye While package holidays may appear to be a modern invention, only really taking off with the dawn of cheap flights, there is evidence that they go back a lot further. In fact, a certain Thomas Cook arranged his first tour as far back as 1841. It was a train to Loughborough for supporters of temperance – remember that next time you’re hitting the all-inclusive bar on your hols. What came before package holidays? If you’ve ever been to one of the UK’s seaside towns then you will have seen the fading glory of the pre-package holiday. Underneath the piles of passed-out stags and hens are the iconic buildings and weathered charm of former holiday hotspots. Unlike today, Brits did not expect sunshine on their holidays. In fact, some destinations even marketed themselves with the brisk weather.

Just look at Skegness, where the slogan was: “It’s so bracing!” Package holidays are born The package holiday as we would know it today (rather than as an 11 mile train journey with a bunch of abstainers) was properly born in the 1950s and the boom began in the 60s. This was due to changes to legislation and a relaxation of border controls that made it easier to take money out of the country. Some of the reasons for a sudden upsurge in flights are quite surprising. Professor Miller explains: “Simple things made a big difference. For example, there were lots of aeroplanes left over from the last world war. There was a big supply of planes, so that increased supply led to a reduction in the prices of flights. “Then Spain and southern Europe were trying to rebuild their economies. They had to consider what they had to sell; they had sun, they had beaches – so they put up hotels and there was an industry.” Early destinations included Corsica, Mallorca and the Costa Brava, with Greece gradually developing into a travel hotspot for Brits abroad.

Turbulence for package holidays Just when it seemed that enthusiasm for package holidays would keep rocketing upwards, disaster struck. In 1974, several tour operators collapsed, stranding an estimated 40,000 holidaymakers abroad. Back at home, Brits who’ve booked breaks were told their money was simply lost. Air Travel Organisers’ Licensing (ATOL) had been launched in 1972, so there was some financial protection in place and the stranded tourists were brought home. Just like today, ATOL existed to refund customers if their tour operator went under, and ensure people already on holiday could catch flights home. However, just two years in there weren’t enough funds to repay the 100,000-odd people who had paid in advance for their breaks. Since then, the government has launched a fund called the Air Travel Trust, to pay for any amount that can’t be covered by ATOL. Of course, even with ATOL protection, it’s a good idea to take out travel insurance well in advance of jetting off, preferably well in advance rather than the night before you leave. Package holiday snobbery As travel options have widened, a curious phenomenon has developed.

There’s a tendency among some tourists to be snobbish about package holidays, as if to prove they are ‘real’ travellers. Professor Miller thinks it’s unfortunate that the idea of a package holiday has become so pejorative. “It is a very middle class perspective on ‘those kind’ of holidays. But the people who take a two week holiday in Spain are getting exactly the kind of holiday they want. For a lot of people who don’t have the hyper-mobile lives of, say, academics and journalists, then two weeks in Spain is quite adventurous. There’s risk taking, novelty, newness and adventure.” In the interests of full disclosure, this journalist feels a need to admit not leaving the country since the birth of her first child three years ago – hyper-mobile I am not. But his point is a good one; sneering at people for enjoying a more traditional break is like mocking people who pick a burger and chips over a Heston Blumenthal taster menu. Not everyone wants snail porridge. And Professor Miller is also keen to point out that traditional destinations are far more sustainable than far-flung countries in environmental terms. After all, two weeks in Spain has a considerably lower carbon impact than two weeks in Dubai.

The future of the package holiday We’ve come a long way from Thomas Cook’s temperance train, but what’s the future of travel? If you want to, you can book flights and hotels separately. You can use the internet to arrange every last detail of your break yourself, and use review websites to choose only the best providers. Professor Miller agrees that the internet is a challenge for package holiday providers. “It forces the industry to be creative in products it can put together and demonstrate that it can put a better package together than we can independently,” he explains. But tour operators often have the edge when it comes to price. As Professor Miller adds: “Packages can be and still often are are more cost effective. Thomas Cook can negotiate a cheaper hotel rate than me...” Like what you've read? Chief executive brings Thomas Cook back from brink into profit – at a price | Business | The Guardian Thomas Cook Chief executive brings Thomas Cook back from brink into profit – at a price After a near-collapse into bankruptcy, bookings are up, but Harriet Green has shed 2,500 jobs and closed 200 outlets Thomas Cook boss Harriet Green insisted the travel agent was "back from the brink" after its near-collapse last year.

Photograph: Rui Vieira/PA Thursday 1 August 2013 17.02 EDT First published on Thursday 1 August 2013 17.02 EDT Close This article is 3 years old Thomas Cook is back from the brink, its chief executive Harriet Green has said, as the world's oldest travel agent announced its move back into profit following a near-collapse into bankruptcy two years ago. Summer bookings are up, the company's debt mountain has more than halved, while its shares nudged a 16-month high of 162p. And the sun is shining on its balance sheet: on an earnings measure that excludes interest payments and restructuring costs, profits rose to £1m for April to June, compared with a £23m loss last year. "Thomas Cook is stronger, we have refinanced, we are not facing a wall of debt," said Green, who started in the top job exactly one year ago this week. And the business that is contributing most to Thomas Cook is its UK arm: "Not a well business one year ago," she added.

The company has sold 85% of its holidays for this summer, compared with 76% this time last year, while bookings at exclusive hotels – identified as a growth area – are up 38%. But the travel agent's return to profitability has come at a cost. It has shed 2,500 jobs this year – 15% of its workforce – and closed almost 200 travel agents. There are no plans to close any more outlets, Green said, but it would be impossible to give guarantees on jobs. The 51-year old boss, who is paid a basic salary of £680,000 and could be eligible for a bonus of up to £1.5m, is on a cost-cutting mission, aiming to cut overheads by £400m by 2015. But, she said, it would be wrong to assume this would all be achieved by cutting jobs. Savings were being made by merging airlines and printing operations, as well as moving company headquarters from the "totally inappropriate beautiful central London offices" near the Savoy to a building 30%-40% cheaper in the City.

This is all "pretty sensible stuff and not rocket science", said Nicholas Batram, an analyst at Peel Hunt. "If you were to write down a roadmap of the things they should be doing … then they are doing extremely well." But, he warned, after the "quite easy gains" of recovery, comes the harder task of long-term growth. "They are talking £400m savings and synergies, of which less than half will have been delivered by the end of this year, so there is still a long way to go." Green and her team have overseen a transformation, but "will she be able to grow rather than just recover?" said Batram. "I don't see why she can't do that. She has gone through this with a fine-tooth comb and all signs are very positive." It wasn't always like this. When Green's appointment was announced Thomas Cook's share price dived as the City took fright at the decision to put a travel industry novice in charge. Green arrived from the electronics company Premier Farnell. That share price fall was pretty dispiriting, she said, but the industry welcomed her with open arms. "This was a burning platform and they needed someone who could stop the flames burning their knees.

The reality was I knew a lot about transformation, a lot about restoring brands and transforming to the web," she said. In an unusual move, she won the top job by sending her curriculum vitae and a rescue plan for the troubled business to Thomas Cook's chairman, Frank Meysman. Green was already a fan of the brand – her first family holiday was a Thomas Cook deal – and she had been paying attention as the business spiralled into debt crisis. "I contacted the chairman and said I think I have the experience in transformations that I have done in four different continents … and can we have a chat. And we did and I am here." Would-be business leaders should be assertive in putting themselves forward, she says, stressing this is not just advice for women. "You have to express and push and drive, I don't think that is gender specific," she said. "But if it helps women to feel more confident to have people in my position say so, then I would be happy to do that." Speaking at Fortune magazine's Powerful Women conference in London in June, she discussed why women do not make it on to company boards.

Some chairmen want "guys they have always worked with", she said, while "some headhunters are not as rigorous finding women", but individuals also have to take the initiative. She appears decidedly lukewarm about using quotas to get women on company boards and cites her experience of joining her local beekeeping group in Oxford. "When you join a new group and you want to add value, you lack some confidence, you don't know how the group dynamics work. "You listen and you evolve and you grow. And it doesn't help anyone in that situation, in a real life practical way, to know that you were put there as a token." From temperance to Torremolinos in 172 years The holiday company that through the 1970s and 80s helped millions to loll by the pool for two weeks under Mediterranean skies, glass of sangria in hand, was originally founded by a Victorian temperance activist. In 1841 cabinet-maker Thomas Cook decided to experiment with the new-fangled railways by taking 500 people from Leicester to Loughborough to attend a temperance meeting – the journey in open wagons cost one shilling.

The entrepreneur expanded his horizons, taking well-to-do Victorians to cities all over Britain and Ireland. By the 1860s the company was escorting parties on cruises down the Nile. But the company, which was nationalised in 1948, was slow to respond to the thirst for mass-market travel in the jet age. Russian-born Vladimir Raitz is seen as the father of the modern package holiday and launched Horizon Holidays shortly after he took a small group on a charter flight to Corsica in 1950. Thomas Cook had to race to catch up. It was privatised in 1972 and became a dominant presence on the high street, thanks to well-known brands such as Club 18-30 and Kids' Club holidays. But the 1990s brought testing times, as more experienced, internet-savvy travellers took advantage of low-cost airlines and cheap foreign property to tailor their DIY holidays. Hundreds of small travel agents went bust. Thomas Cook allowed its big rival TUI Travel to lead the way in adapting package holidays to offer exclusive upmarket hotels.

Thomas Cook was still taking 23 million people on holiday every year, but in 2011 it almost collapsed under £1bn of debt. The Arab spring, which hit tourism in popular destinations in Egypt and Tunisia, and the euro crisis, played their part in a near-death experience that eventually led to a £1.6bn refinancing programme. Since new chief executive Harriet Green arrived a year ago, the agent has shed 2,500 jobs and closed 196 stores, but is now back in the black. Key Dates 1841 - 2014 | Thomas Cook 1808 Thomas Cook is born on 22 November in the village of Melbourne in Derbyshire. 1834 John Mason Cook is born on 13 January in Market Harborough, near Leicester. 1841 Thomas Cook organises his first excursion, a rail journey from Leicester to a temperance meeting in Loughborough. On Monday 5 July a special train carries some 500 passengers a distance of 12 miles and back for one shilling. 1845 Thomas Cook conducts his first trip for profit.

It is a railway journey to Liverpool from Leicester, Nottingham and Derby. Fares are 15/- first class and 10/- second class, with a supplementary charge for travelling by special steamer to North Wales 1846 Thomas visits Scotland for the first time. A party of about 350 people travels from Leicester to Fleetwood, then to Ardrossan by steamer, and onwards by rail to Glasgow. Special trips are made to Edinburgh, Stirling and Ayr. 1851 Thomas Cook promotes trips to the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park. More than 150,000 people from Yorkshire and the Midlands, including a party of 3,000 children from Leicester, Derby and Nottingham, travel to London under his arrangements. - The Excursionist is published for the first time as Cook's Exhibition Herald and Excursion Advertiser. 1855 Thomas Cook's first continental tour. He personally conducts two parties from Harwich to Antwerp, then on to Brussels, Cologne, Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Strasbourg and, finally, to Paris for the International Exhibition. 1863 Thomas Cook conducts his first party of 62 people to Switzerland, via Paris.

A journal of this trip, kept by Miss Jemima Morrell, survives in the Thomas Cook Archives. 1864 John Mason Cook, aged 30, joins his father in business. 1865 Thomas Cook opens an office in Fleet Street, London, the upper floor of which is used as a Temperance Boarding House. 1866 John Mason Cook personally conducts the first American tour. 1868 Thomas Cook introduces a system of hotel coupons (which he had tested the previous year) in an attempt to get fixed prices for accommodation at selected hotels in all major cities. 1869 Thomas Cook escorts his first party to Egypt and Palestine. 1871 Thomas Cook & Son becomes the official name of the firm when John Mason Cook joins his father as a business partner. 1872/73 Thomas Cook organises and leads the first round-the-world tour. He is away from home for 222 days and covers more than 25,000 miles. 1873 Thomas Cook & Son opens its new head office at Ludgate Circus, London. Also the first edition of Cook's Continental Time Tables & Tourist's Handbook is published.

1874 Cook's Circular Note, an early form of the travellers cheque, is launched in New York. 1878 A distinct Foreign Banking and Money Exchange Department is established. 1879 John Mason Cook becomes 'sole managing partner' of the company. 1884 The relief force sent to rescue General Gordon from Khartoum is conveyed up the Nile as far as Wadi Halfa by Thomas Cook & Son. 1892 Thomas Cook dies, aged 83. 1898 Kaiser Wilhelm II's tour of the Holy Land is organised by John Mason Cook and his son Frank. - John Mason Cook dies suddenly at the age of 65. The company passes into the hands of his three sons: Frank, Ernest and Thomas ('Bert'). 1908 Thomas Cook & Son issues its first winter sports brochure. 1919 Thomas Cook & Son is the first travel agent to offer pleasure trips by air. 1922 Thomas Cook & Son organises the first tour to cover the whole length of the African continent. The tour lasts five months and includes a one-month safari. 1924 Thomas Cook & Son Ltd is incorporated.

The head office of Thomas Cook & Son Ltd moves to Berkeley Street in London's Mayfair district. 1927 Thomas Cook & Son Ltd organises the first personally-conducted air tour - from New York to Chicago for the Dempsey-Tunney heavyweight boxing contest. 1928 Frank and Ernest Cook, the two surviving grandsons of Thomas Cook (Bert having died in 1914), retire, selling the business to the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits et des Grands Express Européens. 1939 Holidays by air on specially chartered aircraft to the French Riviera are included in Cook's summer brochure for the first time. 1948 Thomas Cook & Son Ltd becomes state-owned under the British Transport Holding Company. 1959 Thomas Cook introduces to business clients a new worldwide credit scheme for travel and related services. 1966 Thomas Cook's 125th anniversary. 1972 Thomas Cook is privatised and bought by a consortium of Midland Bank, Trust House Forte and the Automobile Association. 1974 Thomas Cook launches a customer protection guarantee in UK retail shops.

1977 Thomas Cook opens its new administrative headquarters at Thorpe Wood in Peterborough. - Midland Bank buys out Trust House Forte and the Automobile Association to become the sole owners of Thomas Cook. 1980 Thomas Cook Travel Book Awards first presented. 1981 Thomas Cook introduces 'Holidaymaker', a private viewdata system allowing travel agents to access directly Thomas Cook Holidays reservation system. 1982 Thomas Cook purchases Rankin Kuhn Travel Ltd 1986 Airfare Warehouse is launched. 1989 The long-standing agreement with Wagons-Lits comes to an end and the development of a new worldwide network begins. 1990 Thomas Cook becomes the world's leading foreign exchange retailer when it acquires the retail foreign exchange operations of Deak International Inc. 1991 Thomas Cook celebrates its 150th anniversary. A 34-day round-the-world trip is arranged to commemorate this occasion, and a re-enactment of the first railway excursion from Leicester to Loughborough takes place on 5 July. 1992 Westdeutsche Landesbank, Germany's third largest bank, and the LTU Group, Germany's leading charter airline, acquire the Thomas Cook Group from Midland Bank.

1994 Thomas Cook acquires Interpayment Services Limited, the travellers cheque subsidiary of Barclays Bank plc, to become the world's largest supplier of travellers cheques outside the United States. - Following a major review of its global activities, Thomas Cook sells its travel management business to American Express. 1995 Westdeutsche Landesbank acquires LTU's 10% share of the Thomas Cook Group, making Thomas Cook a wholly-owned subsidiary of WestLB. Thomas Cook launches its own Internet site. 1996 Thomas Cook acquires Sunworld, the UK and Ireland's fourth largest short-haul tour operator, and Time Off, the specialist European city breaks tour operator. - Thomas Cook announces plans to form the world's largest leisure travel alliance with the American Automobile Association (AAA), subject to US regulatory clearance. 1997 Thomas Cook On-Line is launched, making Thomas Cook the first UK retail travel agency to offer customers a way to buy holidays, foreign currency, travellers cheques and guidebooks over the Internet. Thomas Cook Direct Businesses open a new call centre in Falkirk. Sunworld acquires the Flying Colours Leisure Group, one of the UK's medium-sized tour operators and leisure airlines.

Thomas Cook launches its Global Traveller Services business. Preussag AG acquires a 24.9% shareholding in Thomas Cook. 1999 The European Commission approves the merger of Thomas Cook and Carlson Leisure Group's UK travel interests. Thomas Cook's worldwide headquarters in London moves out of Berkeley Street, where it has been since 1926, to new premises in Midford Place. JMC is formed (by combining the former operating brands Sunworld, Sunset, Flying Colours, Inspirations and Caledonian Airways) and becomes the UK's third largest tour operator and airline business. Preussag AG becomes the majority shareholder in Thomas Cook Holdings Ltd when it increases its stake from 24.9% to 50.1%. (WestLB retains a 27.9% interest and Carlson Companies Inc. holds 22%.) 2000 Thomas Cook announces the sale of its Global and Financial Services division to Travelex on 8 November. C&N Touristic AG, one of Germany's largest travel groups, signs an agreement (on 7 December) to become the sole owner of Thomas Cook Holdings, subject to EC approval.

Thomas Cook completes the sale of its Global and Financial Services division to Travelex on 27 March. C&N Touristic AG becomes the sole owner of Thomas Cook on 30 March. C&N Touristic AG changes its name to Thomas Cook AG and launches a new logo. Thomas Cook's 160th anniversary. 2002 Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium begins operating in March, serving holiday destinations in the Mediterranean and on the Canary Islands with a fleet of five Airbus A320 aircraft. Thomas Cook is set to become the first fully international leisure brand. The Thomas Cook brand - hitherto used as the company's name as well as for its sales and service activities - will in future appear in all markets and on all levels of the travel-related value chain. 2003/2004.Thomas Cook celebrates 150 years of taking Britain abroad - since the first ever overseas holiday, and launches holidays to Brazil for the first time. 2004 Thomas Cook announces its partnership with the Variety Club of Great Britain as its chosen charity. The relationship involves fundraising activity and Christmas flights for underprivileged, sick and disabled children.

- A new 'dynamic packaging' brand, FlexibleTrips, is launched to enable customers to build their own holidays in store and online. 2005 Thomas Cook UK & Ireland announces its greatest ever profits of £50 million over the financial year 2006 The company announces record profits of £83.3 million and achieves the 'holy grail' of the travel industry, a five per cent profit margin. Thomas Cook is also listed as one of the Sunday Times Top 20 Best big companies to work for. 2007 Thomas Cook becomes part of Thomas Cook Group plc which was formed on June 19th 2007 by the merger of Thomas Cook AG and MyTravel Group plc. -In December Thomas Cook UK & Ireland becomes listed on the London Stock Exchange for the first time. 2008 Thomas Cook Group acquires Canada’s TriWest Travel Holdings, French tour operator Jet Tours, and UK independent travel companies hotels4u, Gold Medal and Elegant Resorts. 2009 Thomas Cook’s majority shareholder, Arcandor AG places its remaining shares on the stock market, resulting in 100% of the Group’s shares being freely floated on the London Stock Exchange.

Thomas Cook becomes an Official Supporter of the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games and the exclusive partner for UK short breaks and trips to the Games. The Thomas Cook Children’s Charity is launched to help sick and disadvantaged children. 2010 Following the earthquake in Haiti, Thomas Cook Group helps the Disasters Emergency Committee, UNICEF and various charities to carry aid and relief personnel out to the affected area. Thomas Cook Group acquires 100% of German tour operator, Öger Tours GmbH. Thomas Cook Group and The Co-operative Group announce plans to merge their UK travel retail networks to create the UK’s largest chain of high-street agencies. The merger is subject to anti-trust clearance from the EC, which is anticipated in December 2010. Press Centre Links Tour Operators - Investigating the Travel and Tourism Industry Investigating the Travel and Tourism Industry Interrelationships Tour operators arrange the transport, accommodation and leisure activities which make up the holiday packages. Tour Operators have a massive impact on the tourism industry as there would be no holidays if there wasn’t any tour operator as they're the ones that make the holidays and give them to the travel agents which is where tourists buy their holidays from.

P1 Description of the component AJW Mass market(Thomas Cook) P1/P2 example and role AJW Thomas Cook is in the private sector. A mass market tour operator which organises tours for groups of people at a time. Also arranges transport accommodation, Activities and any extra services that might be needed. And they need to understand the tourism industry really well, know which are the most affordable routes and modes of transport. Where tourists get most of the adventure and what services can be offered for free. A mass market tour operator must understand operations of related companies and how they complement or conflict with the one they run. Thomas Cook have agreed to merge with MyTravel to cut costs - a predicted £75 million a year saving - and combat competition from low-cost airlines and Web-based travel agents. This latest merge highlights a major change in the tourism industry which has in the last 10 years seen a decline in mass tourism and an increase in people travelling with smaller operators. Specialist(Cox and Kings) P1/P2 example and role AJW Cox and Kings are in the private sector.

Cox and Kings is the world's longest established travel company, offering high quality group tours, private journeys and tailor-made holidays to many of the world's most fascinating regions. Luxury holidays range from the lavish to the adventurous, and are planned by experts. Cox and Kings offer worldwide holidays to some of the most fascinating parts of the globe. Our luxury holiday destinations include the Indian Subcontinent, Latin America, the Far East, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, the Indian Ocean, Australasia and the South Pacific, and the Caribbean. cox and kings The role of tour operators is to put together all the different components that make up a holiday and sell them as packages to the consumers for example, Thomas Cook. However the two different tour operators are mass market and specialist tour operators in which mass market tour operators are package holidays that appeal to holiday makers, and specialist tour operators are tailor-made holidays with their specialist products and expertise in niche markets. However its in the private sector. P2 Thomas Cook, aims, products and services and contribution to the economy. P3 Integration and working together with other organisations AJW Thomas Cook is the world’s best-known name in travel, thanks to the inspiration and dedication of a single man.

Thomas Cook began his international travel company in 1841, with a successful one-day rail excursion from only a shilling per person from Leicester to Loughborough on 5 July. From these humble beginnings Thomas Cook launched a whole new kind of company devoted to helping Britons see the world. During the next three summers Thomas arranged a succession of trips between Leicester, Nottingham, Derby and Birmingham on behalf of local temperance societies and Sunday schools. Thousands of people experienced rail travel for the first time, and Thomas was able to lay the foundations of his future business. Thomas Cook's first commercial venture took place in the summer of 1845, when he organised a trip to Liverpool. Thomas Cook is still privately owned and its main aim is to be successful and make a profit. Thomas Cook is the UK's number 1 travel agent/tour operator in the 2007/8 Super brands survey. Thomas Cook tour operators is not just for flights it’s also for holidays mainly package holidays, in which you would get a Thomas Cook flight and a Thomas cook holiday. However there are two different sectors in the tour operator industry which are mass market, specialist and domestic and incoming tour operators.

However, in 2007 Thomas Cook took over MyTravel in which is saving them 75 billion pounds a year. This latest merge highlights a major change in the tourism industry which has in the last 10 years seen a decline in mass tourism and an increase in people travelling with smaller operators. Thomas Cook is vertically integrated as they have Thomas Cook tour operators, Thomas Cook Travel Agents and Thomas Cook Cruises and an airline. They also have a lot of other company’s under their umbrella. P3 example of vertical integration AJW Also, when you book an overseas package holiday operated by Thomas Cook Tour Operations Ltd, your payment is financially protected by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), under ATOL number 1179. This means that should the unexpected happen, you won’t be left stranded abroad or out of pocket. P2 meeting environmental aims of the organisation AJW Sustainable tourism Sustainable tourism means that your looking after what we have now for the future. Over 160 years ago Thomas Cook created the first package holiday out of a sense of social responsibility.

In keeping with the values of the Victorian Society of the day, he believed that by offering alternative, more virtuous and learning leisure activities, the lives of working people would be greatly improved if they became better educated through travel. Today we are still inspired by those values. We believe they make a World of difference, not only to our customers but to all the people whose lives we touch. Our mission is to perfect the personal leisure travel experience whilst at the same time, managing our activities in a sustainable way. Sustainable Tourism (also called Responsible Tourism) is simply about making a Positive difference to the people and environment of destinations we travel to By: - Respecting local cultures and the natural environment - Buying local, giving fair economic returns to local families - Recognising that water and energy are precious resources that we need to use carefully - Helping to protect endangered wildlife - Protecting and enhancing favourite destinations for the future enjoyment of visitors and the people who live there - Taking responsibility for our actions while enjoying ourselves P2 Toursm and the economy AJW P2 The effect tourism has on the economy Tourism development is when; money is taken out of the UK and spent on goods and services provided by overseas destinations such as accommodation and transport etc.

However, outbound tourism has a negative effect on the balance of payments. For example, Thomas Cook provides food, drink, ancillaries, accommodation and entertainment. Although the positive effects are that it provides employment in the UK for example people working in travel agents, hotels and restraurants etc.. P2 economic importance of tourism the multiplier effect AJW The multiplier effect is when money is spent and then re-spent in the economy. For example if we was going on holiday you would need all the extras such as, accommodation, food&drink, trips and transport then the people working at the hotel will also get a little bit of our money from their wages then they would also spend their money on things like food& drink, rent, clothing etc.. and the people in clothes shops, restraunts and bars and landlords they will get paid from their jobs in which its always being re-spent and is like a huge never ending circle. P2 Toursm and the economy GDP AJW The GDP is a measurement of a country’s economic growth and is calculated by the valve of imports and deducting the value of exports. Incoming tourism is an export which is a good and positive thing and outgoing tourism is an import which is a bad and negative thing.

Also tourism can contribute greatly to countries which are less developed(LEDC'S) in which it shows how much money a country is bringing in however this is used to see which country isn’t doing so good for example they can tell if a country’s in a recession. P3 Integration examples Thomas Cook AJW P3 Vertically integrated Thomas Cook is a vertically integrated company this occurs when two companies at different levels of the chain of distribution merge or are bought. Thomas Cook is also a horizontally integrated company as they merged with my travel and co-op travel which joined together in an attempt to save in costs and make the companies more profitable, the merger will mean there are fewer jobs in the three companies as efficiency Savings will be made. Also they have tour operators, travel agents, airlines and hotels in which makes them vertically integrated. P3 Links - Thomas Cook and working together AJW Links and working Together Thomas Cook works together with transport company’s such as coach companies and taxi firms to ensure tourists get to their destinations, the coaches are not owned by Thomas Cook but you can recognise your coach as they normally put a Thomas Cook logo in the window so that tourists can see it clearly. It helps Thomas Cook as it gets visitors to their destination or attraction.

Thomas Cook will benefit from this as they're not having to provide their own coach company and will not have to staff it so it would save money if they used local coach companies and taxis. The local companies benefit because they get money and trade from Thomas Cook and it helps to make their business profitable. Holiday representatives are there to guide you when you land at your destination so that you have a clear view of where you’re going, they show you which coach/ taxi to get and also whilst you’re on the coach they tell you about all the attractions and sites you pass by. Also whilst at your hotel you usually have to go to a meeting the morning after you arrive so that the holiday rep can tell you more about your hotel and tries and sells and promotes trips, visits and businesses, in which the holiday rep would get commission for promoting the businesses if tourists go along to visit the promoted destination. Also holiday reps promoting different places and tourists visiting will bring money in to the local people in which is connected to the multiplier effect. as we are bring money from overseas to another country and spending it on all the extra's such as accommodation, food& drink, transport etc..

So you can see how Thomas Cook relies on Local businesses to provide products and services for their customers and the local businesses depend upon Thomas Cook to provide customers to buy and use the goods and services they provide in order to be successful. Create a free website

Question: Where did Thomas Cook organise his first package holiday to go to?
Answer: LOUGHBOROUGH